This line is in accordance with the belief that the stars are
guarded by celestial intelligences, to the prevalence of which many
passages in the sacred writings bear testimony, and from which
may be inferred a possibility that each inhabited and separate
planet may, in reality, be under the care of some delegate spirit.
Saturnius of Antioch taught that “the world and its first inhabitants
were created by seven angels, which presided over the seven
planets;” and that “the work was carried on without the knowledge
of the benevolent deity, and in opposition to the material principle.
The former, however, beheld it with approbation, and honored
it with several marks of his beneficence.”
Many singular systems of this kind are classed under the name of
heresies by Mosheim.
