frequent among New England Congregationalists. These early revivals remained local affairs due to the lack of coverage in print media. The first revival to receive widespread publicity was that precipitated by an earthquake in 1727. As they began to be publicized more widely, revivals transformed from merely local to regional and transatlantic events. In the 1720s and 1730s, an evangelical party took shape in the Presbyterian churches of the Middle Colonies led by William Tennent, Sr. He established a seminary called the Log College where he trained nearly 20 Presbyterian revivalists for the ministry, including his three sons and Samuel Blair. While pastoring a church in New Jersey, Gilbert Tennent became acquainted with Dutch Reformed minister Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen. Historian Sydney Ahlstrom described Frelinghuysen as "an important herald, if not the father of the Great Awakening". A pietist, Frelinghuysen believed in the necessity of personal conversion and living a holy life. The revivals he led in the Raritan Valley were "forerunners" of the Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies. Under Frelinghuysen's influence, Tennent came to believe that a definite conversion experience followed by assurance of salvation was the key mark of a Christian. By 1729, Tennent was seeing signs of revival in the Presbyterian churches of New Brunswick and Staten Island. At the same time, Gilbert's brothers, William and John, oversaw a revival at Freehold, New Jersey. Northampton revival The most influential evangelical revival was the Northampton revival of 1734–1735 under the leadership of Congregational minister Jonathan Edwards. In the fall of 1734, Edwards preached a sermon series on justification by faith alone, and the community's response was extraordinary. Signs of religious commitment among the laity increased, especially among the town's young people. Edwards wrote to Boston minister Benjamin Colman that the town "never was so full of Love, nor so full of Joy, nor so full of distress as it has lately been. ... I never saw the Christian spirit in Love to Enemies so exemplified, in all my Life as I have seen it within this half-year." The revival ultimately spread to 25 communities in western Massachusetts and central Connecticut until it began to wane in 1737. At a time when Enlightenment rationalism and Arminian theology was popular among some Congregational clergy, Edwards held to traditional Calvinist doctrine. He understood conversion to be the experience of moving from spiritual deadness to joy in the knowledge of one's election