, editor of Lactantius, &c. the son of Archibald Spark, minister of Northop
, editor of Lactantius, &c. the son
of Archibald Spark, minister of Northop in Flintshire, was
born in 1655, and was educated at Westminster-school,
whence he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1672.
After taking his degrees in arts, and being ordained, he was
appointed chaplain to sir George Jeffries, who promoted
him when he became chancellor, to what benefices, or at
what times, Wood has not discovered; but at his death,
which took place at Bath, Sept. 7, 1692, he was rector of
Ewehurst in Surrey, to which he had been instituted in
1687, and of Norton, or Hogsnorton, near Bosworth, in
Leicestershire, a prebendary of Lichfield and of Rochester; and D. D. Wood says, he “left behind him the character of a learned man, but confident and forward without
measure; and by his excesses, and too much agitation in
obtaining spiritualities, he brought himself into an ill disposition of body, which, contrary to his expectation,
brought him, in the prime of his years, to his grave.
” He
published a good edition of “Lactantii Firmiani opera quae
extant, ad fidem Mss. recognita, et commentariis illustrata,
” Oxon. 1684, 8vo; and “Notae in libros sex novae
historic Zozini comitis,
” ibid.