Wesley was especially
credulous. "I cannot give up to all the Deists in Great Britain the
existence of witchcraft till I give up the credit of all history, sacred
and profane." He had no doubt that the physical contortions into which
so many of his hearers fell were due to the direct agency of Satan, who
tore the converts as they were coming to Christ. He had himself seen men
and women who were literally possessed by devils; he had witnessed forms
of madness which were not natural, but diabolical, and he had
experienced in his own person the hysterical affections which resulted
from supernatural agency.

If Satanic agencies continually convulsed those who were coming to the
faith, divine judgments as frequently struck down those who opposed it.
Every illness, every misfortune that befell an opponent, was believed to
be supernatural. Molther, the Moravian minister, shortly after the
Methodists had separated from the Moravians, was seized with a passing
illness. "I believe," wrote Wesley, "it was the hand of God that was
upon him." Numerous cases were cited of sudden and fearful judgments
which fell upon the adversaries of the cause. A clergyman at Bristol,
standing up to preach against the Methodists, "was suddenly seized with
a rattling in his throat, attended with a hideous groaning," and on the
next Sunday he died. At Todmorden a minister was struck with a violent
fit of palsy immediately after preaching against the Methodists. At
Enniscorthy a clergyman, having preached for some time against
Methodism, deferred the conclusion of the discourse to the following
Sunday. Next morning he was raging mad, imagined that devils were about
him, "and not long after, without showing the least sign of hope, he
went to his account." At Kingswood a man began a vehement invective
against Wesley and Methodism. "In the midst he was struck raving mad." A
woman, seeing a crowd waiting for Wesley at the church door, exclaimed,
"They are waiting for their God." She at once fell senseless to the
ground, and next day expired. "A party of young men rode up to Richmond
to disturb the sermons of Rowland Hill. The boat sank, and all of them
were drowned." At Sheffield the captain of a gang who had long troubled
the field-preachers, was bathing with his companions. "Another dip," he
said, "and then for a bit of sport with the Methodists." He dived,
struck his head against a stone, and appeared no more. By such anecdotes
and by such beliefs a fev