More odious than the birds and beasts

More odious than the birds and beasts,
Creatures design’d for sacrifice,
Are careless crouds and worldly priests,
Who now provoke thy glorious eyes,
Profane the temple of the Lord,
Their venial ministry disgrace,
And sell the prayer, the psalm, the word,
And buy in hell the hottest place.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Take these things hence: make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.’—[John 2,] v. 16." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), pages 219-20. An earlier version of this hymn, lacking lines six and eight, was 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 337.
Publishing: Public Domain