Cant, Andrew (1), Am

Cant, Andrew (1), A.M., a Scotch clergyman, father of the foregoing and of the following, was regent of King's College, Aberdeen; was admitted to the living at Alford ill 1617; nominated for a living at Edinburgh in 1620; resigned after- October, 1629, and settled at Pitsligo in 1633, having been tutor in the family of Forbes. He tried to get up supplications to the privy council against the service book of 1637, which led to his being called "an apostle of the Covenant;" went to Aberdeen with two celebrated ministers in furtherance of that object; and was a member of the assembly which met at Glasgow on that business. He was transferred to Newbattle in 1638, instituted in 1639, and transferred to Aberdeen in 1641. He was a member of the Commissions of Assembly from 1642 to 1649, inclusive, and had his expenses paid by parliament in consideration of his "great pains and travel, his fidelity and care, and for the payment of his losses." He. was elected moderator of the General Assembly in 1650, joined the Protestors in 1651, demitted his charge in 1660, and died April 30, 1663, aged seventy-eight years. He was the most active partisan of the Covenant in the north of Scotland, and bad powerful influence with the nobles who adhered to it. It is held by some that from this zealous minister the term " cant" has arisen, signifying the whining tone of a preacher, or a pretension to piety or goodness which is not felt. This is confirmed by an essay in the Spectator of Addison. His publications were, Titles of our Blessed Saviour: — Sermon preached in the Greyfriars Church (Edinb. 1638): — Two Sermons on Renewing the Covenant. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticance, i, 293; iii, 463,464, 546, 635.