Nathaniel, D.D., author of the Credibility of the Gospel History, was born in 1684 at Hawkhurst, in Kent. On leaving the school of his native town, he went to study in London, in the academy of Dr Oldfield, a Presbyterian dissenter; and at the age of sixteen, according to a custom then common among the English dissenters, he went over to Holland, and studied there for three years under Burmann, Graevius, and D'Uries. He returned to England in 1703, spent six years more in the special study of theology, and took license in 1709. He was not popular as a preacher. His elocution was bad, chiefly from deafness, being such that he could not modulate his voice properly. In 1713 he entered the family of Lady Truby as private chaplain and tutor to her son, and remained with her till she died in 1721. From this time till his death he devoted himself almost wholly to the writing of those works which have given him a foremost place among the theological scholars of Britain. His public duties were limited to occasional lectures in the Presbyterian chapel at Old Jewry. Though the value of his writings was freely acknowledged, he was very meanly remunerated for them. A small property which he possessed in his native town secured him against the worst evils of poverty. At the time of his death, which happened at Hawkhurst, in 1768, he had completed his eighty-fourth year.

The most important of Lardner's works is his *Credibility of the Gospel History*, in which proofs of the truth of Christianity are brought together from innumerable sources in religious history and literature of the first five centuries. It was published between 1730 and 1757, and still holds its place as one of the strongest bulwarks of revealed religion. The Supplement to this work, and the *Large Collection of Jewish and Heathen Testimonies*, are in an equal degree distinguished by profound learning and close and cogent reasoning. The composition of these works occupied the better part of forty-three years. Of the less elaborate essays thrown off during this time, the most important was his *Letter concerning the question, Whether the Logos supplied the place of the Human Soul in the Person of Jesus Christ*, in which he openly professed himself a Socinian. There are two complete editions of Lardner's works, one in 11 vols. 8vo, edited, in 1788, by Dr Kippis; and another in 5 vols. 4to, Lond. 1815.