A Pastoral Letter FROM THE Four Catholic Bishops TO THE LAY-CATHOLICS of England.  
EPiscopal Authority, Dear Brethren, of which You and your Catholic Ancestors have been long deprived, being lately, by a merciful Providence of God, and the Piety of His Majesty, restored unto you; and Our Persons, tho' unworthy of such a Dignity, made choice of to bear the Weight, and undergo the Solicitude annexed to it: We have judged it proper, before We separate Ourselves in order to a discharge of Our Duties in the respective Counties committed to Our Care, to join in a common Address unto You All, hoping that what comes thus directed by an united Application, will make a deeper Impression on your Minds, and dispose you to an easier Compliance with the Fatherly Admonitions which every one in his particular District shall think fit to be made unto you.  
Your Condition for many years past hath been such, as enabled you to manifest a steadfastness in your Religion, rather by suffering for it in your own Persons, than by contributing actively towards the planting it in the Minds and Hearts of your Fellow-Subjects. The Exercise of it hath been private and precarious, tending rather towards the Preservation of it in yourselves, than a Propagation of it in others. But now you are in Circumstances of letting it appear abroad, and of edifying your Neighbours by professing it publicly, and living up to the Rules prescribed by it.  
We need not tell you what Obligation you lie under on this Account, and how unjustifiable your Behaviour will be in the Judgement of God and Men, if it be not conformable to those Rules, if the Liberty you enjoy of professing your Religion be not improved into Practices suitable to the Sanctity thereof, and if the Truth of your Faith be not manifested by an Exemplarity in your Lives.  
Charity, which the Apostle declares to be the End of the Law, 
1 Tim. 1.  is the Virtue by which your Faith is to operate, and be kept alive: Your Understandings may be united without it, but your Hearts cannot. This latter Union is that which maintains the former, and renders it useful towards obtaining the End for which it is bestowed upon you.  
We cannot mind you of this important Duty with words more expressive of what We desire, than those which the same Apostle made use of to exhort the Ephesians: 
Eph. 4.  We conjure you, as he did them, to walk in a manner worthy of the Vocation by which you are called, with all Humility and Meekness, with Patience supportin one another in Charity, solicitous for maintaining the Unity of Spirit in a Bond of Peace.  
You see of how great Concern this Unity of Spirit is unto you, by the care which the Apostle takes to have it well guarded. You likewise may observe the quality of the Guard which is set to secure it. The employment of ordinary Guards is to secure Peace, but here Peace itself is appointed to be the Guard: Peace in the first place with God, by an entire submission to the Orders of his Divine Providence; from which connaturally follows a Peace within yourselves, and a Peace with your Fellow-Subjects.  
As Peace is a secure Guard to the Spirit of true Religion and Piety, 
Gal. 5.  so it is by the Apostle ranked in the third place amongst the Fruits of the Spirit. The Soul centres in God by Charity, and finding there an entire Satisfaction, rests in Peace.  
Our Intention in exhorting you to a Practice of Charity, is not that it be confined to persons of your own Religion: Such confinement would be a destruction of it; for true Charity hath no Bounds. You must love those of your Religion, because they are so; and others, that as they profess themselves to be Christians, they may become Members of the Catholic Church. You must evidence your Love towards these, by an inoffensiveness in your Behaviour.  
The memory of past hardships which you have suffered from some amongst them, may be apt to create provoking Animosities, and the Liberty you now enjoy may possibly tempt you to insult over those who formerly abridged you of it: But it must be your care to prevent or suppress all such irregular Motions. You must endeavour to tread in the Footsteps of our Divine Master, who was so far from making such passionate returns, that he did not forbear, even in the height of his Persecutions, to signalise the Excess of his Charity to those who were guilty of them. 
1 Pet. 2.  St. Peter puts you in mind of this, proposing the Example of Christ to your imitation; who, when his Enemies treated him with most outrageous Language, was far from answering them in the same Dialect: When he was provoked by them to the highest degree of a just Indignation, he did not so much as threaten them with the exercise of his Power. 
1 Pet. 3.  The same Apostle leaving us a Character of true Christians, declares, That they must be unanimous, compassionate, Lovers of the Brotherhood, merciful, modest, humble, not rendering evil for evil, railing for railing; but on the contrary returning Blessings to those who treated them in this manner.  
Now if in quality of true Christians you ought to live up to this Character; if you ought to make it good in the most provoking circumstances that Providence might place you in; what is to be expected from you in these which at present you are favoured with? You are indulged a public Exercise of your Religion; a great part of the Nation, whose Persuasion in Points of Religion doth differ most from Yours, and which in time past hath been severe upon your Persons, is willing to enter into a Friendly Correspondence with you; and if some others do repine at your being Sharers in the Liberty which themselves enjoy with much greater Advantage, the most effectual means to convince them of their Error, is to edify them by your good Example.  
You live under a Prince of your own Religion, to whom, next unto God, you owe this Felicity. You have his Power to protect you in the free Exercise of your Religion, and his Example to encourage your discharge of this Duty in a most edifying manner. His Majesty's assiduousness at the Divine Service, and other Functions performed in his Chapel, notwithstanding the multitude of weighty Affairs, which might frequently excuse him from such Attendance; the respectful Posture in which he performs this Religious Duty, and which argues a Presence of Mind no less than of his Body, cannot but invite you, both as good Catholics and good Subjects, to a Conformity with so Eminent a Pattern. What business can dispense you from discharging these Obligations, when you see His Majesty under the Weight of the whole Government so punctual in His Compliance with them?  
It may seem needless to suggest unto you another Obligation you lie under, not only of a passive Obedience to His Majesty's Orders relating to the Government, but also of an active and cheerful Concurrence with Him therein: Your own Safety and Interest being concerned in this, and depending on it, are sufficient Inducements for your endeavouring to give full Satisfaction in this Point.  
His Majesty hath been graciously pleased not only to favour you with His Royal Protection, but moreover to honour many amongst you with a share of the Government under Him. He hath admitted you to Employments both Civil and Military, from which by the severity of our Laws you have formerly been excluded: He hath placed you in Circumstances of manifesting to the World that it was neither want of Loyalty nor Ability that occasioned your former Exclusion: He hath capacitated you hereby to remove the Prejudices which in former Reigns your Religion and Persons have lain under. So that henceforth there will be no reason to apprehend your being Sufferers, or that your Fellow-Subjects will be preferred before you in management of public Trusts on these accounts, since Religion is no longer a Bar to your Preferment.  
We therefore earnestly desire those amongst you who are already in Offices, so to behave themselves in them, that neither His Majesty may have occasion to repent, nor His other Subjects to repine at the Choice he hath made of them. We exhort those who are not yet in public Employment, to bear their Lots with Modesty and Patience, without Murmuring or Envy. We conjure you all to abstain from speaking or acting any thing that may seem to have the least indecent reflection upon the Government. The Councils of Kings are Sacred, as well as their Persons; and it is a kind of Sacrilege in Subjects to be too bold with either: Their Duty is, not to approach their Persons but with respect, nor discourse of their Councils without submission. 
Rom. 13.   
Let every Soul (We speak to you again in the words of St. Paul) be subject to Higher Powers; for there is no Power but of God, and those that be, are ordained of God: Therefore he that resisteth Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God; and they who resist, do purchase to themselves Damnation. What in this Text of the Apostle is said of Higher Powers, must be understood not only of the Supreme Authority which is seated in the King's Person, but proportionably also of that which His Majesty is pleased to impart to His Ministers of State, and other Magistrates in their respective stations. It is the King that acts principally in, and by those Subordinate Officers: His Royal Character being stamped upon them, challengeth respect from the rest of His Subjects, and renders their failings therein a Trespass in some measure against Majesty itself.  
Having thus minded you of the general and more substantial Duties incumbent on you, We do not judge it either necessary or proper to descend at present to such others as are of a more special Nature: Occasions hereafter will not be wanting of inculcating these, when We enter upon Our respective Provinces, where We are to dedicate Our Labours to your Spiritual Improvement, and where We hope to find such Dispositions, as by rendering Our Pastoral Solicitude profitable to you, 
Heb. 13.  may make it easy and comfortable to Ourselves. Pray for Us: And the God of Peace, who brought out from the dead the great Pastor of the Sheep in the Blood of the Eternal Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ, fit you in all Goodness, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight.  
Your most affectionate Servants in Christ, 

John Bishop of Adramite. V. A.  
Bonaventure Bishop of Madaura. V. A.  
Philip Bishop of Aureliople. V. A.  
James Bishop of Callipoli. V. A.     

LONDON: Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty for His Household and Chapel; and are to be sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Blackfriars. 1688.