As the charge of pious fraud is not made against Jesus himself or his immediate followers, it is difficult to meet so indefinite an objection. It seems to be put in to add force to others, rather than for its intrinsic value. Modern unbelievers express a nearly unanimous concurrence in endeavouring to account for the miracles of the New Testament, by assuming that the followers of Jesus were the victims of the most intense enthusiasm, superstition, and credulity. It is difficult to comprehend, on the assumption that the existence of the supernatural portions of the New Testament is due to these causes, how direct fraud could have anything to do with the concoction of these miraculous stories. Intense enthusiasm and fanaticism, and deliberate fraud, are usually opposite poles of character; and if we call in one to account for these miracles, we must exclude the other from exerting an influence on their origination. To make the charge of any avail against the narratives of the Gospel, it is necessary not to prove that pious frauds were common in the second, third, or fourth century, or even in the first, but to establish directly either that Jesus professed to work miracles while He knew that they were not such, or that His followers deliberately invented a number of miraculous stories and attributed them to Him, well knowing that He had performed none. The charge that the miracles of the New Testament originated in enthusiasm and credulity is a definite one, and can be definitely met. So is the one that they originated in deliberate fraud. So would be the charge that the innocent followers of Jesus were imposed upon by fraudulent impostors. But to combine the charge of intense enthusiasm and credulity with that of conscious fraud, is a mode of reasoning which contains the grounds of its own refutation.