Lytton. [T. S. ] ]

And upon this account it is, that among hard words, I number likewise
those which are peculiar to divinity as it is a science, because I have
observed several clergymen, otherwise little fond of obscure terms, yet
in their sermons very liberal of those which they find in ecclesiastical
writers, as if it were our duty to understand them; which I am sure it
is not. And I defy the greatest divine to produce any law either of God
or man, which obliges me to comprehend the meaning of _omniscience,
omnipresence, ubiquity, attribute, beatific vision,_ with a thousand
others so frequent in pulpits, any more than that of _eccentric,
idiosyncracy, entity,_ and the like. I believe I may venture to insist
farther, that many terms used in Holy Writ, particularly by St Paul,
might with more discretion be changed into plainer speech, except when
they are introduced as part of a quotation.[2]

[Footnote 2: Swift refers to this point in his "Thoughts on Religion,"
and regrets that the explanation of matters of doctrine, which St. Paul
expressed in the current eastern vocabulary, should have been
perpetuated in terms founded on the same terminology. [T. S.] ]

I am the more earnest in this matter, because it is a general complaint,
and the justest in the world. For a divine has nothing to say to the
wisest congregation of any parish in this kingdom, which he may not
express in a manner to be understood by the meanest among them. And this
assertion must be true, or else God requires from us more than we are
able to perform. However, not to contend whether a logician might
possibly put a case that would serve for an exception, I will appeal to
any man of letters, whether at least nineteen in twenty of those
perplexing words might not be changed into easy ones, such as naturally
first occur to ordinary men, and probably did so at first to those very
gentlemen who are so fond of the former.

We are often reproved by divines from the pulpits, on account of our
ignorance in things sacred, and perhaps with justice enough. However, it
is not very reasonable for them to expect, that common men should
understand expressions which are never made use of in common life. No
gentleman thinks it safe or prudent to send a servant with a message,
without repeating it more than once, and endeavouring to put it into
terms brought down to the capacity of the bearer: yet after all this
care, it is frequent for servants to mistake, and