Built by the most holy God

Verse 1
Built by the most holy God,
Every soul his house should be,
Fitted for his fixt abode,
Fill’d with prayer and purity:
But when covetous and vain
Worldly lusts my soul receives,
Then thy temple I profane,
Turn it to a den of thieves.

Verse 2
Jesus, Purity Divine,
Plenitude of God below,
Come and claim this heart of mine,
All my selfish plans o’rethrow;
For thy name and glory’s sake,
Every trafficker expel,
Of thy own possession take,
In thy house forever dwell.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought, and overthrew the tables &c.’—[Mark 11,] v. 15.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/574, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 42.
Publishing: Public Domain