That Porphyryes opinion that the blessed soules should haue no bodiss, is con∣futed by Plato himselfe, who saith that the Creator promised the infe∣riour deities, that they should neuer loose ther bodyes. CHAP. 26.
YEa but (saith Porphyry) a blessed soule must haue no body: so that the bodies incorruptibility is nothing worth, if the soule cannot bee blessed vnlesse it want a body. But hereof wee haue sufficiently argued in the thirteenth booke: onely I will rehearse but one onely thing. If this were true, then Plato their great Maister must goe reforme his bookes, and say that the GODS must goe and leaue their bodies (for hee saith they all haue celestiall bodyes) that is, they must dye, ere they can bee blessed: how-so-euer that hee hath made them, promised them immortality, and an eternall dwelling in their bodies, to assure them of their blisse: and this should come from his power-full will, not from their na∣tures. The same Plato in the same place, ouer-throwes their reason that say there shall be no resurrection, because it is impossible for GOD the vncreated maker of the other Gods, promising them eternity, saith plainly that hee will doe a thing which is impossible: for thus (quoth Plato) hee said vnto them. Because you are created, you cannot but hee mortall and dissoluble: yet shall you neuer dye, nor be dissolued; fate shall not controule my will, which is a greater bond for your perpetuity, then all those where-by you are composed. No man that heareth this, (bee hee neuer so doltish, so hee bee not deafe) will make any question that this was an impos∣sibility which Platoes Creator promised the deities which hee had made. For say∣ing, You cannot bee eternall, yet by my will you shall bee eternall, what is it but to say, my will shall make you a thing impossible? Hee therefore that (as Plato saith) did promise to effect this impossibility, will also raise the flesh in an incorruptible, spirituall and immortall quality. Why doe they now crye out that that is impos∣sible which GOD hath promised, which the world hath beleeued, and which it was promised it should beleeue, seeing that Plato him-selfe is of our minde, and saith that GOD can worke impossibilities? Therefore it must not bee the want of a body, but the possession of one vtterly incorruptible, that the soule shall be blessed in. And what such body shall bee so fitte for their ioy, as that wherein (whilest it was corruptible) they endured such woe? They shall not then be plagued with that desire that Virgil relateth out of Plato, saying:
Rursus & incipiunt in corpora velle reuerti. Now gan they wish to liue on earth againe.I meane, when they haue their bodies that they desired, they shall no more de∣sire any bodyes: but shall possesse those for euer, without beeing euer seuered from them so much as one moment.