Tertullian

“ Now, if the mention of these events (I mean the judgment-day, and the kingdom of God, and the resurrection) has a plain and absolute sense, so that nothing about them can be pressed into an allegory, neither should those statements be forced into parables which describe the arrangement, and the process, and the experience of the kingdom of God, and of the judgment, and of the resurrection. On the contrary, things which are destined for the body should be carefully understood in a bodily sense,—not in a spiritual sense, as having nothing figurative in their nature. ”

“ Footnotes ↑ Matt. xiii. 34.↑ Ver. 10.↑ Matt. xiii. 13; comp. Isa. vi. 9.↑ See Luke vi. 39; comp. with ver. 20, and other places, especially in this Gospel.↑ See Luke viii. 11.↑ See Luke xviii. 1.↑ Such cases of obvious meaning, which required no explanation, are referred to in Matt. xxi. ”