"I rather experience than understand it"

      "Now, if anyone should ask me how this [presence of the flesh of Christ in the Supper] takes place, I shall not be ashamed to confess that it is a secret too lofty for either my mind to comprehend or my words to declare.  And, to speak more plainly, I rather experience than understand it [(experior magis quam intelligam | i’en sens plus par experience que ie n’en puis entendre)]. . . .
". . . such is the presence of the body (I say) that the nature of the Sacrament requires a presence which we say manifests itself here with a power and effectiveness so great [(quam tanta virtute tantaque efficacia hic eminere dicimus | laquelle nous y disons estre & apparoistre en si grande vertu & efficace)] that it not only brings an undoubted assurance [(indubitatam . . . fiduciam | indubitable confiance)] of eternal life to our minds, but also assures us [(securos nos reddat | nous rend certains & asseurez)] of the immortality of our [(nostrae | nostre)] flesh.  Indeed, it is now quickened by his [(eius | la . . . de Iesus Christ)] immortal flesh, and in a sense partakes of his [(eius | son)] immortality."

     John Calvin, Institutes IV.xvii.32, trans. Battles =COS 5, 390-391 | p. 894 in chap. 18 of the French edition of 1545.  I'm guessing that asseurez is a plural of the adjective asseuré (Gremais & Keane, Dictionnaire du moyen françois, s.v. asseurer) rather than of the verb asseurer.  A less (?) likely possibility might be the adjective asseur, though that might make it (and nous) a feminine (asseures).

     I was put onto this by Francis Higman, "Calvin et l’expérience," in Expérience, coutume, tradition au temps de la Renaissance, ed. M. T. Jones-Davies for the Centre de recherches sur la Renaissance (Editions Klincksieck, 1992), 250 (245-256).
     I, on the other hand, more "embrace" (amplector | acquiesce à la promesse de Iesus Christ) than "experience" it.