Thomas Watson: On Foreseen Faith

The Arminian doctrine of conditional election includes the understanding that God elects to save those whom he foresees will believe in him. In other words, our faith in some sense causes our election, hence conditional election.

In his work A Body of Divinity English Puritan theologian Thomas Watson offers a rather insightful argument against this doctrine writing:

If we are not justified for our faith, much less are we elected for our faith; but we are not justified for it. We are said to be justified through faith as an instrument in Eph. 2:8, but not for faith as a cause; and, if not justified for faith, then much less elected (70).