When judgment is rendered in a court of record in this state upon an instrument in writing in which two or more persons are jointly or severally bound, and it appears to the court, by parol or other testimony, that one or more of the persons so bound signed it as surety or bail for his codefendant, the clerk of such court, in recording the judgment thereon, must certify which of the defendants is principal debtor and which is the surety or bail. Such clerk shall issue execution on such judgment, commanding the officer to levy on the goods, chattels, lands, and tenements, of the principal debtor, or, for want of sufficient property of his to make it, to levy on the goods, chattels, lands, and tenements, of the surety or bail. The property, personal and real, of the principal debtor, within the jurisdiction of the court, shall be exhausted before any of the property of the surety or bail is taken in execution.