Attribuat linguæ turba togata suæ;
Nos tibi, Fergusi, tantum debere fatemur,
Scotanam linguam qui reparare studes.
Sermonem patriam ditas; inculta vetustas
Horret qua longe barbariemque fugas;
Adde etiam, neque abest facundis gratia dictis,
Respondet verbis materia apta tuis.
Quod satis ostendit nobis tua concio præsens,
Qua nihil in lucem doctius ire potest.
Besides this sermon, Ferguson was the author of a collection of Scottish Proverbs, and of an Answer to the Rejoinder, which the Jesuit Tyrie made to Knox. That abusive writer, James Laing, calls this last work “a barbarous, and Scotican epistle,” and rails against its author as an ignorant sutor and glover, who knew neither Hebrew, nor Greek, nor Latin. As for himself, although a Scotsman, Laing tells us, that he thought it beneath him to write in a language which was fit only for barbarians and heretics. “Tressunt linguæ elegantes et ingenuæ, Hebraica, Græca, et Latina, quæ nobilibus principibus—sunt dignæ: cæteras linguas, cum sint barbaræ, barbaris et hæreticis tanquam propriis relinquo.” De Vita Hæreticorum, Dedic. p. ult. et p. 31. Paris, 1581. Notwithstanding this writer’s boasting of his literature, and the opportunities which he takes to display it, he did not know the top from the bottom of a Hebrew letter, if we may judge from his book, p. 94, b. Laing’s objection to the literature of Ferguson may, however, be thought as solid as that which another popish writer has brought against his morals, by accusing him of using pepper instead of salt to his beef. “At hi quibus carnem accendant irritentque, novas artes quotidie excogitant;” and on the margin, he says, “Exemplo est David Ferguson ad macerandas carnes bubulas pipere pro sale utens.” Hamilton. De Confus. Calvinianæ Sectæ, p. 76. But to do justice to Hamilton, it is proper to mention, that pepper was at that time so high priced as to be a morsel only for a pope or a cardinal, and very unfit for the mouths of barbers, cobblers, &c., of which rank he tells us the reformed preachers generally were. Principal Smeton, after saying that Ferguson had reared a numerous family on a very moderate stipend, adds:—“Undenam ergo illi, amabo te, tantum piperis ad carnes quotannis macerandas quantum sexcentis apud nos aureis nummis nemo unquam compararit?” Smetoni Responsio ad Hamilt. p. 95. The truth is, there was too much salt and pepper in the writings of Ferguson for the papists.