244 L A II 
is deeply indebted to the author. They complete the 
grand "defign which had occupied a large portion of forty- 
three years of Dr. Lardner’s valuable life; and by them 
(though far from profitable in a pecuniary view) he has 
raifed a monument to his fame, which can never perifii. 
Dr. Lardner lived to a very advanced age, and, with the 
exception of his hearing, retained the ul'e of his faculties 
to the laft, in a remarkably perfeft degree. In the year 
1768, he fell into a gradual decline, which carried him off 
in a few weeks, at Hawkherft, his native place, at the age 
of eighty-five. He had, previoufly to his laft illnefs, parted 
with the copy-right of his great work, together with all 
the remaining printed copies, for the trifling fuin of one 
hundred and fifty pounds. Such a fum was by no means 
an equivalent for the expenfes which he had incurred; 
but he contented to the agreement, in the hope that the 
work would be rendered more extenfively ufeful, when it 
became the immediate intereft of the bookfellers to pro¬ 
mote its fale. 
Soon after the doctor's death, his pofthumous pieces be¬ 
gan to appear. In the year 1769, were printed Memoirs 
of the Life and Writings of Dr. Lardner ; to which were 
annexed, Eight Sermons upon various Subjects. Of thefe 
fermons, the fifth and fixth are on the internal marks of 
credibility in the New Teftament. They were preached 
by him in 1723 and 1724, at the Tuefday-evening lefture, 
and contain, in fome degree, the outlines of his great 
work. In 1776 was publilhed, a fliort letter, which our 
author had written in 1762, Upon the Perfonality of the 
Spirit. It had been a part of Dr. Lardner’s original de¬ 
fign, with regard to the Credibility of the Gofpel Hiltory, 
to give an account of the heretics of the two firft centu¬ 
ries. To the arrangement, therefore, of his collections 
upon this fubject, he applied himfelf, after he had finiftied 
his Jewilh and Heathen teftimonies; but he did not live 
to complete his intentions. After mature deliberation, it 
was judged proper that the progrefs which he had made 
fhould be communicated to the public ; and his papers 
were put into the hands of the Rev. Mr. Hogg, a learned 
and judicious diflenting minifter, at Exeter, for that pur- 
pole. In confequence of this gentleman’s revilal and af- 
iiftance, there appeared in 1780, in one volume quarto, 
“The Hiltory of the Heretics of the two firft Centuries 
after Chrift ; containing an Account of their Time, Opi¬ 
nions, and Teftimonies to the Books of the New Telta- 
ment; to which are prefixed, General Obfervations con¬ 
cerning Heretics.” This volume, though not, upon the 
whole, fo valuable and important as fome of the former 
labours of the author, poflefles, neverthelefs, very conli- 
derable merit. It recites the teftimonies of heretics, rec¬ 
tifies a variety of miltakes concerning them, and refutes 
many groundlefs charges to which they were expofed, 
from the ignorance, falle zeal, and bigotry, of their adver- 
faries. The laft pofthumous publication written by Dr. 
Lardner appeared in 1784, and is entitled Two Schemes 
of a Trinity confidered, and the Divine Unity aliened. 
It confiftsof four difcourfes upon Philip, ii. 5-11. The firft 
reprelents the commonly-received opinion of the Trinity ; 
the fecond defcribes the Arian fcherne; the third treats 
on the Nazarean dodlrine; and the fourth explains the 
text according to that dodtrine. They are chiefly eltima- 
ble for the temper and fpirit with which they were com- 
pofed ; and even thofe who are far from agreeing in fen- 
timent with the author, have applauded the candour, the 
fnnplicity, and the love of truth, which they evidently 
difcover. This work may perhaps be regarded as fupple- 
mentary to a piece which he wrote in early life, and which 
he publilhed in the year 1759, without his name, entitled 
A Letter written in the Year 1730, concerning the Quef- 
tion, Whether the Logos fupplied the Place of the Hu¬ 
man Soul in the Perfon of Jefus Chrift.” In this piece his 
aim was to prove that Jefus Chrift was, in the proper and na¬ 
tural meaning of the word, a man, appointed, anointed, be¬ 
loved, honoured,and exalted, by God, above all other beings. 
At the time of its publication, this treatile does not ap- 
L A R 
pear to have made any great impreflion 5 but of late years, 
when the queftion relating to the true dodhine of the Nevr 
Teftament concerning the perfon of Chrift has been 
warmly agitated, it has been much read and quoted, and 
has undergone repeated impreflions. 
The piety of Dr. Lardner was lincere and ardent; it 
was the governing principle of all his adtions, and found¬ 
ed on juft and enlarged views concerning the nature of 
religion. The love of truth appears maniteltly in all his 
works; and no one ever feems to have preferved a preater 
impartiality in his inquiries, or to have been more free 
from any undue bias. He followed truth wherever it led 
him; and for the attainment of it he was admirably qua¬ 
lified, both by the turn of his difpofition and his under- 
ftanding. The candour and moderation with which he 
maintained his own ientiments, conltituted a prominent 
feature of his charadter. Benevolence, as well as piety, 
entered deeply into Dr. Lardner's charadler; he was ready 
to promote every good work ; and to perlbns in diftrels 
he was ever willing to contribute, to the highelt degree 
which his fortune would admit His manners were po¬ 
lite, gentle, and obliging; and he was attentive in every 
relpedt to the laws ot decorum. 
We may obferve, that to Dr. Lardner’s great works we 
are unqueltionably indebted for Dr. Paley’s View of the 
Evidences of Chriftianity ; nor is it too much to lay, that, 
if the former had not been publilhed, the latter, probably, 
would never have appeared; and juliice requires us to 
add, that fufficient acknowledgments were not made for 
the afliltance which was derived from the labours of the 
excellent Lardner. It mull, however, be admitted, that 
the deficiencies of the amiable Paley have been fupplied 
by his biographer Mr. Meadley ; who, in Ipeaking of his 
View of the Evidences of Chriftianity, which appeared in 
1794, in three volumes umo. but which have in all fub- 
fequent editions been printed in two volumes 8vo. Mr. 
Meadley fays, “the direft hiftoricai teftimony for the au¬ 
thenticity of the Chriftian revelation, already adduced by 
the indefatigable Lardner, is admirably lelefted and ar¬ 
ranged in this important work ; and the general aro-u- 
ment drawn up with great clearnels and felicity. The 
moft ftriking of thole collateral proofs of the credibility 
of the golpel-hiltory, produced by the lame writer, are 
alfo here again prefented, in a novel and impreflive man¬ 
ner, and eitablilhed by auxiliaries of a different kind.” 
Of Dr. Paley’s works, and of his motives in the publica¬ 
tion, too high encomiums cannot be paid ; and it is to be 
regretted that in his preface he had not acknowledged his 
obligations to our author. Paley’s View is capital as an 
abridgment of Lardner, Douglas, See. and his work has 
been twice, at leaft, abridged or analyled : one of thefe 
abridgments was publilhed at Cambridge in 1795) and 
another in London in 1810. Lardner's Life by Kippis ; 
Meadley's Life of Paley. 
LAR'DON,y. [French.] A bit of bacon. 
LARE ,_/1 A lathe, a turner’s bench. Scott. 
LA'RE, a town of the principality of Georgia, in the 
province of Carduel: eighty miles fouth of Teflis. 
LA'RE POI'NT, a cape on the eaft coaft of Madagas¬ 
car. Lat. 16.40. S. 
LARE'DO, a feaport town of Spain, in the province 
of Bifcay, with a good harbour, in a gulf to which it gives 
name : twenty miles eaft of Santander. Lat. 43. 25. N. 
Ion. 3.21. W. 
LA'REK, La'rak, or Lared'sj, a fmall ifland in the 
Perfian Gulf. The foil is bad, and the water brackilh. 
The Dutch attempted to fettle a factory here, but were 
prevented by the Perfians. It is twelve miles louth-fouth- 
eaft of Gambron. Lat. 26. 50. N. Ion. 56. 38. E. 
LA'REMBERG, a town of Auftria : feven miles fouth 
of Vienna. 
LA'REN, a town of Holland : five miles fouth-eaft of 
Naerden. 
LARENDE'HA, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Cara- 
mania : forty miles louth-fouth-eaft of Cogni. 
3 LAREN'SIS, 
