St. Gregory on the fewness of the saved

"And it should not frighten you that in the Church the bad are many and the good few. For the Ark, which in the midst of the Flood was a figure of this Church, was wide below and narrow above, and at the summit measured but one cubit (Gen. vi. 16). And we are to believe that below were the four-footed animals and serpents, above the birds and men. It was wide where the beasts were, narrow where men lived: for the Holy Church is indeed wide in the number of those who are carnal minded, narrow in those who are spiritual. For where she suffers the morals and beastly ways of men, there she enlarges her bosom. But where she has the care of those whose lives are founded on spiritual things, these she leads to the higher place; but since they are few, this part is narrow. Wide indeed is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction; and many that are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate that leadeth to life; and few there are that find it (Mt. vii. 13)!

"The Ark is made narrow at the summit, so that it is but one cubit wide: because, of those in the Church, the holier they are, the fewer they are. She reaches her highest perfection in Him Who alone among men was born Holy, and there is none to be compared with Him. He Who, in the words of the Psalmist, has become as a sparrow all alone on the housetop (Ps. ci. 8). And so the more must we suffer them in patience; for on the threshing floor few are the grains carried into the barns, but high the piles of chaff that are burned with fire.

http://books.google.com/books?id=O5quQXJOr3oC&pg=PA230&dq=wide+where+the+animals+were,+narrow+where+men+lived:+for+the+Holy+Church+is+indeed+wide&ei=1m4vSZ-NFpiyMIKCnbEB#PPA230,M1