The Theistic argument is, therefore, necessarily composed of both experiential and _à priori_ elements. An _à posteriori_ element exists as a condition of the logical demonstration The rational _à priori_ element is, however, the logical basis, the only valid foundation of the Theistic demonstration. The facts of the universe alone would never lead man to the recognition of a God, if the reason, in presence of these facts, did not enounce certain necessary and universal principles which are the logical antecedents, and adequate explanation of the facts. Of what use would it be to point to the events and changes of the material universe as proofs of the existence of a _First Cause,_ unless we take account of the universal and necessary truth that "every change must have an efficient cause;" that all phenomena are an indication of _power_; and that "there is an ultimate and sufficient reason why all things exist, and are as they are, and not otherwise." There would be no logical force in enumerating the facts of order and special adaptation which literally crowd the universe, as proofs of the existence of an _Intelligent Creator_, if the mind did not affirm the necessary principle that "facts of order, having a commencement in time, suppose mind as their source and exponent." There is no logical conclusiveness in the assertion of Paley, "that _experience_ teaches us that a designer must be a person," because, as Hume justly remarks, our "experience" is narrowed down to a mere point, "and can not be a rule for a universe;" but there is an infinitude of force in that dictum of reason, that "intelligence, self-consciousness, and self-determination necessarily constitute personality." A multiplicity of different effects, of which experience does not always reveal the connection, would not conduct to a single cause and to _one_ God, but rather to a plurality of causes and a plurality of gods, did not reason teach us that "all plurality implies an ultimate indivisible unity," and therefore there must be a _First Cause_ of all causes, a _First Principle_ of all principles, _the Substance_ of all substances, _the Being_ of all beings--_a God_ "of whom, in whom, and to whom are all things" (πάντα ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐν τῷ θεῷ, εἰς τὸν θεόν). The conclusion, therefore, is, that, as the idea of God is a complex idea, so there are necessarily a number of simple _à priori_ principles, and a variety of experiential facts conspiring to its development in the human intelligence. (iii.) _The universe presents to the human mind an aggregation and history of phenomena which demands the idea of a God--a self-existent, intelligent, personal, righteous First Cause--as its adequate explanation._