"Now it pleased God to send Mr. Whitefield into this land: … And I soon heard he was come to New York and the Jerseys and great multitudes flocking after him under great concern for their Souls and many converted which brought on my concern more and more hoping soon to see him … We wend down in the stream; I heard no man speak a word all the way three miles but every one pressing forward in great haste and when we got to the old meeting house there was a great multitude; it was said to be 3 or 4000 of people assembled together … And my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound; by God's blessing my old foundation was broken up, and I saw that my righteousness would not save me; then I was convinced of the doctrine of Election and went right to quarreling with God about it, because all that I could do would not save me; and he had decreed from Eternity who should be saved and who not."—Nathaniel Cole, from The Great Awakening Comes to Connecticut, 1740 The passage describes an experience that

led people to reject emotionalism in religious experience
resulted in the creation of exclusive, authoritarian, and diverse religious sects
provoked a division in preaching styles and the founding of new religious schools
led many people to follow heretical teachings or embrace atheism