The Good of Confessional Subscription

"The faithful and single-minded fulfillment of such an obligation (a Confessional subscription) is not only not a tyrannical expectation, but it is fair and equitable to all parties. It is fair to the pastor, and protects him in many ways; it is fair to the flock, and is a most important protection to them and their children; it is fair to the Church, and protects her in her most essential principles and work.  . . .  As a co-confessor of the confession of the Apostles and the Church, the minister plants himself upon that same foundation-rock, upon which the congregation is as free from his personal mutability as he himself is free from the fluctuation of his members. For as the minister is no lord of the congregation's faith, so the congregation dare not lord it over his faith by the changing opinions of the majority."

The Confessional Principle and The Confessions of the Lutheran Church, 

p. 86-87.