ESSAYS ON LIBERTY AND NECESSITY; IN WHICH THE TRUE NATURE OF LIBERTY IS STATED AND DEFENDED; AND THE PRINCIPAL ARGUMENTS USED BY MR. EDWARDS, AND OTHERS, FOR NECESSITY, ARE CONSIDERED

Boston: Printed by Samuel Hall, 1793. 54pp, stitched in contemporary plain drab wrappers. Untrimmed, lightly foxed, Very Good.
Evans 26469. ESTC W32048.

[offered with] ESSAYS ON LIBERTY AND NECESSITY; IN WHICH THE TRUE NATURE OF LIBERTY IS STATED AND DEFENDED...IN TWO PARTS. PART SECOND. Newbedford, Massachusetts: John Spooner. 1795. 96pp + tipped-in errata slip on blank verso of title page. Later marbled wrappers, lightly toned, Very Good.
Evans 29874. ESTC 32047.

Reviewing West's 'Essays,' DAB explains West's "reply to the views of Jonathan Edwards...that divine prescience does not imply the necessity of future events; that self-determination is consistent with moral agency; that the Deity's permission of sin is proof for the self-governing power of men; and that volition is an effect which has a cause. Of all the replies to Edwards's Freedom of the Will, West's was most thorough and most persuasive. He helped to widen the rift that had already appeared between Calvinist and Arminian.