Doubtless, what you saw was a collection of Arminius' "Works." He was a seminary professor, and minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. He obviously had (N.B. the Remonstrants) and continues to have people who honor his memory, methods, and the movement built upon his influence.
As for mining him for truth, you can do the same with D.Wilson. Or G.Boyd, the open theist. Or R.Warren/B.Hybels, the church-growth gurus. Perhaps, even the pope. The question is: why? When you have limited time and energy, where would you personally be best invested?
It's one thing to check out someone's work for research purposes, coming in with a critical regard. But we know of (and are pleased about) people who come to read Calvin for themselves, and are moved away from an inculcated auto-revulsion, to admiration. D.Wilson has a way with words also, and yet we regard such a gift as a snare.
Just as you have been drawn to Reformed theology based on a trajectory of life and thought; be aware that you may not have found your settled home--though it could be so if you make it so. Your curiosity may also spark an unhealthy interest (as we here would term it) in an alternate theological direction. I'm not picking on you; it could happen to anyone, including me.
I hope you are not half-way through a journey, of which Reformed theology is but a stage. But it is more dangerous for a man of fertile mind to ignore the bypaths that many other men--not so different from himself--have taken. Paths you may not believe (today) could ever appeal to you. Until you have tasted them. Some men simply fail to consider the possibility.
There is in theological inquiry an element of self-discovery. This is reflected in the insight found in Calvin's first lines of his Institutes, "We know God by that same first act by which we know ourselves." Some men have found their inner Calvin or Luther through seeking God. Others have found their inner papist, or Barth, or Arminius. Even an inner atheist, at times.
The heart of a man... "who can know it?" Don't assume you know who you are; pray you will be settled forever where you should be, and that this Reformed theology would continue to be the taste of green pastures and still waters for your soul. And as you read Arminius, or D.Wilson, or J.Osteen, or B.Ehrman, pray you will see accurately the dangers others see.
J.G.Machen went to Germany to enhance his learning and preparation. He sat under the teaching of the liberal scholar Wilhelm Herrmann, whose influence was incredible in those days. Machen was spellbound by the man, who displayed an enviable piety. He taught his students devotionally, and Machen confessed in letters he was nearly carried away.
But he found his footing, somehow; it was surely by the grace of God. And in the end, he shook off the rhetorical and philosophical influence of the man and of that whole modernist movement, the end whereof was bleakness (as K.Barth also discovered; but he ended up co-creating neo-modernism with a new generation of theologians, rather than returning to the old-paths orthodoxy).
I'm neither encouraging nor discouraging you from reading Arminius. I'm talking to you about human nature, about the wisdom of a bit-and-bridle on the charger that is your intellect. There is a kind of man who dispenses with all discipline, and who rides out into the wilderness determined to be led only by his impulses and instincts. A few such men return.
Meditate upon the metaphor.
