Such were the popular notions of the Deity; and either the priests had none better, or took little trouble to correct these notions; or the popular intellect was not enough enlarged to enable them to entertain any higher conceptions of the Almighty.
But such were not the ideas of the intellectual and enlightened few among the Hebrews, It is certain that _they_ possessed a knowledge of the true nature and attributes of God; as the same class of men did among the other nations--Zoroaster, Menu, Confucius, Socrates, and Plato. But their doctrines on this subject were esoteric; they did not communicate them to the people at large, but only to a favored few; and as they were communicated in Egypt and India, in Persia and Phœnicia, in Greece and Samothrace, in the greater mysteries, to the Initiates.
The communication of this knowledge and other secrets, some of which are perhaps lost, constituted, under other names, what we now call _Masonry_, or _Free_ or _Frank-Masonry_. That knowledge was, in one sense, _the Lost Word_, which was made known to the Grand Elect, Perfect, and Sublime Masons. It would be folly to pretend that the _forms_ of Masonry were the same in those ages as they are now. The present name of the Order, and its titles, and the names of the Degrees now in use, were not then known. Even Blue Masonry cannot trace back its _authentic_ history, _with its present Degrees_, further than the year 1700, _if so far_. But, by whatever _name_ it was known in this or the other country, Masonry existed as it now exists, the same in spirit and at heart, not only when Solomon builded the temple, but centuries before--before even the first colonies emigrated into Southern India, Persia, and Egypt, from the cradle of the human race.
The Supreme, Self-existent, Eternal, All-wise, All-powerful, Infinitely Good, Pitying, Beneficent, and Merciful Creator and Preserver of the Universe was the same, by whatever name he was called, to the intellectual and enlightened men of all nations. The name was nothing, if not a symbol and representative hieroglyph of his nature and attributes. The name AL represented his remoteness _above_ men, his _inaccessibility_; BAL and BALA, his _might_; ALOHIM, his various _potencies_; IHUH, _existence_ and the _generation_ of things. None of his names, among the Orientals, were the symbols of a divinely infinite love and tenderness, and all-embracing mercy. As MOLOCH or MALEK he was but an omnipotent _monarch_, a tremendous and irresponsible _Will_; as ADONAÏ, only an arbitrary LORD and _Master_; as AL _Shadaï_, _potent_ and a DESTROYER.