1993 Dodge Spirit

Engine Mechanical problem
1993 Dodge Spirit 4 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic

Started stalling when coming to a stop, it would do this in sperts, one day it would do it all day long then it might not do it again for a week or longer, then it just died going down the highway and now it wont start. I replaced the coil after checking for spark from the coil wire to the distributer, of course I could detect no spark even after several tries, still it refuses to start. It seem to be getting fuel just fine. Further, I detected some kind of funny rattle coming from the engiene, this accured before the stalling started. Do you have any ideas as to why it refuses to start