Wesley Corpus

14. With regard to alterations, in what I take from Mr. Henry, I continually alter hard words into easy, and long sentences into short. But I do not knowingly alter the sense of any thing I extract from him, I only endeavour in several places, to make it more clear and determinate. I have here and there taken the liberty of altering a word in the text. But this I have done very sparingly, being afraid of venturing too far; as being conscious of my very imperfect acquaintance with the Hebrew tongue. I have added very largely from Mr. Pool, as much as seemed necessary for common readers, in order to their understanding those words or passages, which Mr. Henry does not explain. Nay, from the time that I had more maturely considered Mr. Pool's annotations on the Bible, (which was soon after I had gone thro' the book of Genesis) I have extracted far more from him than from Mr. Henry: it having been my constant method, after reading the text, first to read and weigh what Mr. Pool observed upon every verse, and afterwards to consult Mr. Henry's exposition of the whole paragraph. In consequence of this, instead of short additions from Mr. Pool to supply what was wanting in Mr. Henry, (which was my first design) I now only make extracts from Mr. Henry, to supply so far as they are capable, what was wanting in Mr. Pool. I say, so far as they are capable: for I still found in needful to add to both such farther observations, as have from time to time occurred to my own mind in reading or thinking on the scriptures, together with such as I have occasionally extracted from other authors.