Though some of his contemporaries might be indolent in the discharge of their episcopal duties, Pilkington himself was a worthy son of the Church, and performed the functions of his office with all diligence and fidelity. "A bishop," he wrote, "is a name of office, labour, and pains, rather than of dignity, ease, wealth, or idleness. The word _episcopus_ is Greek, and signifies a scout-watch, an overlooker, or spy; because he should ever be watching and warning that the devil our enemy do not enter to spoil or destroy." Though he had, while at Geneva, imbibed the principles of Puritanism, he duly conformed to the practices of the Church, from his respect to constituted authority, but all through his episcopate he manifested a strong disposition to deal tenderly with his nonconforming brethren. He was a prolific writer as well as an able and energetic administrator, and his literary productions, which are, for the most part, of a controversial character, are marked by much colloquial force, and a terseness and vigour of language that is strongly indicative of the Lancashire mind. His collected works were reprinted in 1842 by the Parker Society,[22] and include his "Sermon on Bucer and Phagius, 1560;" "Exposition upon the Prophet Haggai, 1560-1562;" "Exposition upon the Prophet Obadiah, 1562;" "The Burning of St. Paul's Church;" "Confutation of an Addition, 1563;" "Answers to Popish Questions, 1563;" "Letter to the Earl of Leicester on behalf of the Refusers of the Habits, 1564;" "_De Prædestinatione, tractatus Jacobi Pilkington dum erat studens Cantabrigiæ_; _Epistola ad Andriam Kingsmill_, 1564;" and "Exposition upon certain Chapters of Nehemiah," the last-named work having been published after his death by his friend Foxe, the Martyrologist, in 1585.