John Wesley, supernaturalist?

First there was John's "enthusiasm," so he was already considered a religious quack.  But there were also accusations that the Methodists promoted the supernatural in their promotion of spiritual healings.  Remember the picture by Hogarth two days ago?  We know it was specifically aimed at the Methodists because under the thermometer on the right (measuring the emotional state of the brain) is a book of "John Westley's [sic] Sermons."  Note the witch and devil hanging off the main preacher's hands.


"Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism"
William Hogarth
(Wellcome Library)

John taught that the best form of Christianity was "primitive" Christianity, with a focus on returning to the basics of the early Christian Church in the first couple of centuries after Christ.  Therefore, since spiritual healings happened with obvious supernatural involvement in those times, they should be accepted in the 18th century (Rack, 151).  John's own family had a knocking ghost in the Epworth rectory named Old Jeffrey, and he believed in it after receiving detailed letters from his family about Old Jeffrey (Old Rectory tour, Epworth, UK; 9 October 2012).  John sent one of his assistants, John Bennet, to visit Bridget Bostock twice.  At first Bennet was favorable towards her but by the second visit he was more noncommittal -- "She is an unaccountable woman.  Time will make manifest [whether her work is of Christ or not.]," he wrote.  John wrote back to Bennet that he "found no reason to doubt" her power or healings (Rack, 141-42).

"Methodists drew a rough line between what was acceptable and unacceptable in the supernatural world.  Witches and demons were real but to be opposed; folk magic on the whole was to be avoided (by the leadership that is, probably not always by the rank and file).  The magical vestiges in folk medicine may not always have been recognized as such.  [John reprinted some folk medicine cures in Primitive Physick.]  Bridget Bostock may have retained some of the marks of the village 'wise woman' but John Bennet would at least suspend judgement on her because she healed by the 'biblical' means of spittle and prayer [as Jesus did]," wrote Henry Rack (Rack, 152.)

"Who can tell, how many of those diseases which we impute altogether to natural causes may really be preternatural [extraordinary]?  What disorder is there in the human frame which an evil angel may not inflict?" wrote John (Works, 14 vols (London, 1842), VI 358; VII 315, quoted in MacDonald, 111).  Therefore, Methodists attempted to heal not only with physick but also with prayer and fasting (MacDonald, 111).  John did not prescribe only prayer or only physick for illness -- his balanced emphasis on both is still seen in Methodism today.

Although John was open to the supernatural in some situations, he also felt there were limits.  One of his lay preachers, George Bell, healed a woman of a breast abscess but in 1762 when Bell began proclaiming he was a prophet, the end of the world was coming, and then attempted to raise the dead, John expelled him from the Methodists (Rack, 149-50).  Although John supported physick, Methodist preachers were not allowed to sell "pills, drops, or balsams" to their listeners (Wesley, John. Minutes of Several Conversations, quoted in Rack, 146), unlike quacks like Joseph Graham.  And although preachers distributed copies of Primitive Physick, John defined their role as healers as strictly secondary to their more crucial roles as pastors and preachers (Rack, 152).

Yesterday and today, we focused on John Wesley, the religious "quack."  Tomorrow and afterwards, we will look at John Wesley, the medical "quack."