The Argument of the first Chapter [of Swetnam's pamphlet] is "to show to what use Women were made"; it also showeth "that most of them degenerate from the use they were framed unto," etc.
Now, to show to what use woman was made, he beginneth thus: "At the first beginning, a Woman was made to be an helper to Man. And so they are indeed, for they help to consume and spend," etc. This is all the use and all the end which the Author setteth down in all his discourse for the creation of woman. Mark a ridiculous jest in this: spending and consuming of that which Man painfully getteth is by this Author the use for which Women were made. And yet (saith he in the Argument) "most of them degenerate from the use they were framed unto." Woman was made to spend and consume at the first, but women do degenerate from this use. . . . Besides this egregious folly, he runneth into horrible blasphemy. Was the end of God's creation of Woman to spend and consume? Is "helper" to be taken in that sense, to help to "spend," etc.? Is spending and consuming "helping"?
He runneth on and saith: "They were made of a Rib, and that their froward and crooked nature doth declare, for a Rib is a crooked thing," etc.
Woman was made of a crooked rib, so she is crooked of conditions; Joseph Swetnam was made as from Adam of clay and dust, so he is of a dirty and muddy disposition. The inferences are both alike in either: woman is not more crooked in respect of the one, but he is blasphemous in respect of the other. Did Woman receive her soul and disposition from the rib or, as it is said in Genesis, "God did breathe in them the spirit of life"? Admit that this Author's doctrine be true, that woman receiveth her froward and crooked disposition from the rib; Woman may then conclude upon that Axiom in Philosophy, "Quicquid efficit tale, illud est magis tale: ("that which giveth quality to a thing doth more abound in that quality:), as fire which heateth is itself more hot; the Sun which giveth light is of itself more light. So, if Woman received her crookedness from the rib and consequently from the Man, how doth man excel in crookedness, who hath more of those crooked ribs! See how this vain, furious, and idle Author furnisheth woman with an Argument against himself and others of his Sex. . . .
In this ensuring Chapter, I determine briefly to observe (not
curiously to discourse at large) the singular benefits and graces
bestowed upon Women. In regard of which it is first to be considered
that the Almighty God in the world's frame in his Divine wisdom
designed to himself a main end to which he ordained all the works of
his Creation, in which he, being a most excellent workmaster, did so
Create his works that every succeeding work was ever more excellent
than what was formerly Created. He wrought by degrees, providing in all
for that which was and should be the end.
It is furthermore to be considered, as the Maid in her Muzzle for Melastomus hath observed, that God intended to honor woman in a more excellent degree, in that he created her out of a subject refined, as out of a Quintessence. For the rib is in Substance more solid, in place as most near (so in estimate most dear) to man's heart, which doth presage that as she was made for an helper, so to be an helper to stay, to settle all joy, all contents, all delights to and in man's heart, as hereafter shall be showed. . . .