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Statements were made by Plato and Porphyry singly, which if they
could have Seen their way to hold in common, they might possibly have
became Christians. Plato said that souls could not exist eternally
without bodies; for it was on this account, he said, that the souls
even of wise men must some time or other return to their bodies.
Porphyry, again, said that the purified soul, when it has returned
to the Father, shall never return to the ills of this world.
Consequently, if Plato had communicated to Porphyry that which he
saw to be true, that souls, though perfectly purified, and belonging
to the wise and righteous, must return to human bodies; and if
Porphyry, again, had imparted to Plato the truth which he saw, that
holy soul, shall never return to the miseries of a corruptible body,
so that they should not have each held only his own opinion, but should
both have hold both truths, I think they would have seen that it
follows that the souls return to their bodies, and also that these
bodies shall be such as to afford them a blessed and immortal life.
For, according to Plato, even holy souls shall return to the body;
according to Porphyry, holy souls shall not return to the ills of this
world. Let Porphyry then say with Plato, they shall return to the
body; let Plato say with Porphyry, they shall not return to their
old misery: and they will agree that they return to bodies in which
they shall suffer no more. And this is nothing else than what God has
promised, that He will give eternal felicity to souls joined to their
own bodies. For this, I presume, both of them would readily
concede, that if the souls of the saints are to be reunited to bodies,
it shall be to their own bodies, in Which they have endured the
miseries of this life, and in which, to escape these miseries, they
served God with piety and fidelity.
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