If you would know whether your names are written in heaven, satisfy yourselves in this: that the call of God hath took effectual hold of your hearts. Hath it brought your souls off from every thing below Christ wholly to follow Christ? It is said when Christ called Peter and Andrew, they presently "left their nets, and followed him" (Matt. 4:18–20). Every man hath his nets, somewhat that his soul is entangled in, till the call of God take hold of him. Can you now, with Peter, when God calls, lay aside your nets to follow Him?
Effectual calling is the first gathering of men unto Christ, the first making of men to come to Christ, the first putting of a man into the estate of grace. It is the very portal to religion, the very entry into eternal life; it is the first bringing of a man to partake of the Lord Jesus Christ and to have fellowship with Him.
Effectual calling is an act of the grace of God in Christ by which he calls men dead in sin and lost in Adam through the preaching of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, to union with Christ and to salvation obtained in him.