See The evidence of miracles (q.v.) and the evidence of prophecy (q.v.), two of the principal branches of the external evidences of C.,will be found noticed in separate articles. Another argument, which has been much elaborated—for example, in Paley 's Evidence—is derived from the character and sufferings of the apostles and other first preachers of C. ; their high moral worth, considered along with their great earnestness and devotedness; the absence of all possibility of selfish or base motives; and at the same time, their perfect oppor tunity of knowing the truth or the facts which they proclaimed. A subsidiary argument is found in the admission of the great facts regarding Jesus of Nazareth, by the early opponents of Christianity. A most important and valuable argument is found in the perfect coherence of all the parts of the Christian system, and in the agreement, as to the religion which they teach, of all the books of Scripture, notwithstanding the widely different dates of their composition, and their very different nature in other respects. See BIBLE. The relation of the Jewish ceremonies to the doctrines of C. supplies
another argument of this kind, capable of being developed in a multitude of particulars. The minor coincidences between the different books of Scripture have been pointed out with happy effect in the Hone Paulitue of Paley, and in other works. The character of our Savior supplies an argument of great power: the impossibility of the invention of such a character, and of the history in which it is exhibited, by any effort of human genius, is also urged as corroborative; and the inconsistency of the morality displayed, with the supposition of imposture, has been dwelt upon with the same view. The excellency, both of the doctrinal and moral part of the system of C., its elevating and purifying tendency, the agreement of its doctrine with the facts of man's sinfulness and misery, and the suitable provision which it makes' for his most deeply felt wants, are principal branches of the internal evidence of its truth. The effects of C., where it has prevailed, supply a confirmatory argument in its favor, which has formed the subject of works of great learning and interest.