An anecdote is related of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper [1st Earl of Shaftesbury] (1621–1683), who, in speaking of religion, said, "People differ in their discourse and profession about these matters, but men of sense are really but of one religion." To the inquiry of "What religion?" the Earl said, "Men of sense never tell it."
Footnote by Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons (1691-1768), published in the 1833 edition of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury (1643-1715): History of my own Times, vol. I, bk. I, sec. 96 (p. 175).
Quoted by Benjamin Disraeli in Endymion - Chapter LXXXI and Rudyard Kipling in Egypt of the Magicians - Dead Kings.