Therefore if to punish is reckoned an effect of law, so also is to reward. Therefore punishment is not a proper effect of law. I answer that, Just as an assertion is a dictate of reason asserting something, so is a law a dictate of reason, commanding something. Now it is proper to reason to lead from one thing to another. Wherefore just as, in demonstrative sciences, the reason leads us from certain principles to assent to the conclusion, so it induces us by some means to assent to the precept of the law.
Some acts are evil generically, viz.
Consequently it is not reckoned as an effect of law. Wherefore to reward is not reckoned an effect of law, but only to punish. From becoming accustomed to avoid evil and fulfill what is good, through fear of punishment, one is sometimes led on to do so likewise, with delight and of one's own accord. Accordingly, law, even by punishing, leads men on to being good. This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College.