Matthew Poole and continuators on John 5:17

17 But Jesus answered them , My Father worketh hitherto, and I work .

We read of no Objection they made to Christ, as to what he had done, onely that they Persecuted him, which they might do without speaking to him: But it should seem by what we read in this Verse, that some of the Iews had Objected to him, his violation of the Sabbath (as they thought) yet, as we before noted, Answering (in the Dialect of the Gospel) doth often signifie no more than the beginning of a Discourse upon some proper occasion offered.

Our Saviour defendeth himself, from the Example of his Father, in the remembrance of whose resting from his work of Creation on the Seventh day from the beginning of the Creation, the Iews kept their Sabbath; who tho he rested from his work of Creation, yet hitherto worketh, as well on the Sabbath-day as any other day, by his preservation of Created Beings: So (saith he) I who am the Son of this Father, also work; upholding all things by the word of my Power, Heb. 1.3. So that works of Divine Providence are Lawful on the Sabbath-day, such was this. I work no other way than my Father still worketh, tho he rested on the Seventh day from the Creation.

Marginal references: Chap. 14.10.