the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[137] in which they lived. Now, when this principle of evidence is applied to the books of the New testament, it is not enough to say that they possses the same marks and proofs of genuineness with the books ascribed to Cicero, Livy, Virgil, &c we find upon examination that the argument, though of the same kind, is beyond all comparison more extensive, complete, and satisfactory. But to collect and place in one view, another, (for this is impossible,) to reduce into one consecutive series the various testimonies derived from a multitude of writers in a succession of centuries, of which that evidence consists, aspires, as will readily be imagined, a prodigious extent of reading and laborious research. This important labour Dr. Lardner has performed; and the result is placed, not merely within the reach of the scholar, (though he is of course more competent to judge of its value,) but also of the English reader, who assuming (as he may with confidence on the combined authority of all persons of every party who are qualified to express an opinion at the translations are correct and the historical statements to be relied upon, may satisfy himself the main fact, that the books we now possess can be traced up to a period approaching inantiquity that of the supposed authors to whom they have been uniformly ascribed, and that they have been transmitted to us without any material change.

He exhibit this argument in its entire state, and to enable the reader to judge of its full value, it is obviously necessary to present each passage in which any book of the New Testament is either expressly cited or evidently alluded to;