Totus Christus

Samuel Mather wrote that “types relate not only to the Person of Christ; but to his Benefits, and to all Gospel Truths and Mysteries, even to all New Testament Dispensations.” To speak of “types of Christ” is thus not merely to speak of types fulfilled in Jesus, but types that “shadowed forth Christ and all the good that comes by him.”

There is some continuity here with the Augustinian Totus Christus as a principle of interpretation, but what striking is the discontinuity. Instead of seeing OT types as types of Christ and His body, the church , Mather speaks of types of Christ and His benefits . There’s a sea-change in theology and hermeneutics in that difference.