Prayer and Health, part 1

Wesley did not promote health care as the only form of healing, nor prayer as the only form, but recommending using them together. He firmly believed God wants to heal and to restore fallen ones to wholeness. Randy Maddox states, "... [H]e's open to the notion of God working providentially, but his assumption is that in cases of physical ailment it is always God's deepest intent and desire to heal. The primary purpose [of God regarding sickness] is not to infect an illness in order to bring spiritual renewal, but that illness is part of the fallen-ness of the world. So the idea that physical wellness is always God's hope for us is very essential to John Wesley and very central to the work he did in collecting and giving medical advice." (Maddox, "Q&A," 2).
Depending totally on prayer for healing was rare for Christians at that time. Wesley, like the general populace, did not believe prayer and divine healing were spiritually better than going to medical professional (Maddox, "Holistic Health," 10).
Wesley was not opposed to physicians. In fact, his own physician was Dr. John Fothergill, described as "a leading and fashionable physician" (Madden, "Pastor and Physician," 102), and later in life he praised John Whitehead, who was at that time his physician (Maddox, "Holistic Health," 10). What he opposed was the inequality in health care between rich and poor. Since God's mercy is for all, Wesley believed that acts of mercy -- including health care -- ought to be for all (Maddox, "Holistic Health," 26). Logically, physicians who wanted to make money and garner prestige would gravitate to those who could pay them -- the rich (Picard, 171). In the various prefaces to Primitive Physic's 14th edition, Wesley recommends 3 times consulting a physician who believes in God. "In uncommon or complicated diseases, where life is more immediately in danger, I again advise every man without delay to apply to a Physician that fears God." (Wesley, Primitive Physic, xi, xvii, xix). By this he meant someone who was not out to prolong one's illness to make money, as many of them did (Picard, 171), and who was of the same mind spiritually as the patient.