Great Author of all my desires, The thing that I covet

Verse 1
Great Author of all my desires,
The thing that I covet Thou art:
My vehement spirit aspires
To find thee reveal’d in my heart:
Thy nature I long to partake,
Thine image on earth to retrieve:
Then, then, for my Advocate’s sake,
My soul to thy bosom receive.

Verse 2
My God if in Jesus Thou art,
The Giver of comfort and rest,
Thyself to my spirit impart,
Thy kingdom erect in my breast:
And while my accomplish’d desire
In Jesus’s presence I see,
No good upon earth I require,
No heaven in heaven, but Thee.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Thou, O Lord God, are the thing that I long for.’—Ps. 71:4. II.” This hymn appears in the 1783 manuscript “MS Scriptural Hymns.” 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 1977/576, 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. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 307.
Publishing: Public Domain