ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on Wride’s detailed accounts of various supernatural happenings. Belief in the supernatural, including miracles, visions, and ghostly apparitions, was commonplace in the Enlightenment period, even among the educated. John Wesley believed that God could work in such ways, as had scientists such as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle. Others, including Samuel Johnson and David Hume, were more sceptical. Wesley’s position was that all such reported divine interventions should be carefully investigated, to establish both what had happened and whether it had beneficial results for the witnesses. Wride’s papers include reports, some prepared at Wesley’s request, on events such as a Methodist woman’s dream of heaven, a sailor’s vision about both heaven and hell, and a series of visions during trances by young girls on the Isle of Man, though he was sceptical about the latter and undertook experiments to check their authenticity. Wride also recorded various accounts of apparitions of the living and the dead. Many of these events seemed to offer evidence in support of core Methodist doctrine, such as the reality of the Risen Christ, and of eternal reward or punishment. Some brought comfort after bereavement, though Wride’s own supernatural experience was traumatic.
