Jonathan Edwards felt a religious calling early in life. He entered Yale College at age 13 and graduated first in his class. He stayed to study for the ministry and in 1729 Edwards became minister of the Congregational church in Northampton, Massachusetts. He held that position for over 20 years. In the 1730s Edwards helped initiate a religious revival movement that spread across the colonies. The movement became known as the Great Awakening. Edwards’s sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was one of the most famous of the period. In 1750 Edwards was dismissed from his Northampton church over a dispute about qualifications for church membership. He preached for a time at an American Indian mission. In 1758 he accepted a position as president of the College of New Jersey, later renamed Princeton. Edwards died shortly after taking office due to complications from a smallpox vaccination. He left behind some 1,200 sermons and religious articles and numerous books on church doctrine.
