Note 56 — MISCELLANEOUS REFLECTIONS.
Reading edition
To have a familiar spirit, as expressed in the Old Testament, and, To have a demon, as expressed in the New; seem to be phrases of the same import, and the idea of it was that of criminality. But we find no person in the New Testament justly accused of it.
Demoniacs were of another description. They were esteemed innocent, and pitied, as being afflicted by the demons.
Possibly this in part was the true evil which afflicted part of our land in 1692, and which our pious ancestors unhappily mistook for witchcraft.