Human Authority in Religion Condemned, by John Brown of Edinburgh, is a rebuke to all hypocrites who deny the Word and law of God, only to substitute some man-made tradition or idea in its place. It argues against the Pharisaical and "absurd rabbinical casuistry, by which" ignorant and blind souls "confounded the plainest moral distinctions, and make sin duty and duty sin... teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

Preached immediately after the disruption in the Established church of Scotland, this sermon lead to the formation of the Free Church in May 1843. Human Authority in Religion Condemned pinpoints an undue regard to human authority as a major cause of impurity in doctrine, worship, and discipline, and a principle cause of sectarianism, independency, and Popery.