"The Deity is mentioned in the Towneley Mysteries, pp. 97. 118., as He that 'sett alle on seven,' i. e., set or appointed everything in seven days. A similar phrase at p. 85. is not so evident. It is explained in the Glossary, 'to set things in, to put them in order;' but it evidently implies, in some cases, an exactly opposite meaning, to set in confusion, to rush to battle, as in the following examples. 'To set the steven, to agree upon the time and place of meeting previous to some expedition,'—West and Cumb. Dial. p. 390. These phrases may be connected with each other. Be this as it may, hence is certainly derived the phrase to be at sixes and sevens, to be in great confusion. Herod, in his anger at the wise men, says:
"'Bot be they past me by, by Mahowne in heven,
I shalle, and that in hy, set alle on sex and seven;
Trow ye a kyng as I wyll suffre thaym to neven
Any to have mastry bot myself fulle even.'
Towneley Mysteries, p. 143.
"'Thus he settez on sevene with his sekyre knyghttez.'
Morte Arthure, MS. Lincoln, f. 76.
"'The duk swore by gret God of hevene,
Wold my hors so evene,