A Portion from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
How can one know whether he is performing uses from the love of self or from the love of uses?
Every man, good or evil, does uses and does them from some love. Suppose there were in the world a society composed entirely of devils, and a society composed entirely of angels: I am of the opinion that the devils in their society, from the fire of self-love and the glamour of their own glory, would perform as many uses as the angels in theirs. Who then can know from which love or from which source the uses are?Devils do uses for the sake of themselves and for the sake of fame in order to achieve honors or to amass wealth. But not for these ends do angels perform uses, but for the sake of the uses from love of them.
Man cannot distinguish between these uses, but the Lord does. Everyone who believes in the Lord and shuns evils as sins does uses from the Lord; but everyone who does not believe in the Lord and does not shun evils as sins, performs uses from himself and for the sake of himself. This is the distinction between uses done by devils and uses done by angels.
(from Conjugial Love 266)